Tag: Links
Morning Links: ‘Hello Kitty’ Holidays, Traveling During Pregnancy and More
by Eva Holland | 05.21.09 | 8:52 AM ET
- So long, Vegas: the Blue Man Group is headed for the high seas with Norwegian Cruise Lines.
- “Hello Kitty Dream Holiday” package, anyone? Taiwan can provide.
- For all our fellow heat seekers: World Hum contributor Lola Akinmade checks out the world’s hottest peppers, and where to find them.
- In the U.K., Google Street View has obscured the faces of anyone included in their images—including Colonel Sanders.
- A flight to Hawaii for $400 round-trip? Arthur Frommer has the details.
- “Dancing With the Stars” may be over for another year (and hey, congrats, Shawn Johnson) but dancing is forever—and World Hum contributor Abbie Kozolchyk has the down low on where and how to learn some of the world’s iconic steps.
- We’ve gone way beyond shampoo and conditioner: Matador Goods offers up 10 surprising travel-sized items.
- Just in time for Memorial Day, HalogenLife picks 10 favorite local brews from across the U.S. (Via Gadling)
- Traveling while pregnant? Check out Delicious Baby’s ongoing series on the subject. The latest post tackles flying while pregnant.
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Morning Links: Watering Old Faithful, the Salish Sea and More
by Eva Holland | 05.20.09 | 7:35 AM ET
- Two employees at Yellowstone National Park have been fired after being caught urinating into Old Faithful—the story notes that the geyser “was not erupting at the time.”
- Nobel Prize winner (and occasional travel writer) Orhan Pamuk is headed back to court over complaints that he insulted Turkishness. (Via the Book Bench)
- For the second year in a row, New York City has free bike rentals available through the summer.
- Strait of Georgia? Puget Sound? Juan de Fuca? A retired professor has a proposal to give those confusing bodies of water around southern British Columbia and Washington a single name: the Salish Sea.
- In the wake of February’s Buffalo plane crash, several senators are calling for an investigation of the safety standards being enforced for regional airlines.
- London’s rail commuters are Twittering haikus about “the great British summer,” in “the world’s first interactive Twitter poetry competition.” Yoko Ono will select the winners.
- Breaking news: Airport currency exchanges offer the worst rates going. I know. I was shocked, too.
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Morning Links: Whole-Body Imaging, Advice from an RVer and More
by Eva Holland | 05.19.09 | 9:11 AM ET
- A woman was asked to leave Toronto’s Pearson International last week after staff realized she’d been sleeping in Terminal One since Easter. Police believe that when she left, she had “somewhere to go.”
- David Grann’s “The Lost City of Z” has been longlisted for this year’s Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction. We interviewed Grann awhile back about the book. (Via the Book Bench)
- Privacy groups are girding for a fight against the TSA’s new “whole-body” airport scanners, with a national campaign against the “virtual strip search” launching this week.
- Need life advice? The Onion’s latest column, Ask A Wife Helping Her Husband Back A Camper Into A Park Site, is here to help.
- World Hum contributor Karl Taro Greenfeld talks to NPR about his new book, a memoir of growing up with an autistic brother. There’s an excerpt to go with the thoughtful interview.
- Ever wondered which North American cities have the winningest sports teams? You’re in luck: here’s a map of the rankings.
- Four months later, passengers from the flight that crash-landed in the Hudson River are slowly being reunited with their belongings.
- Warnings against travel to Mexico are being rescinded, and cruise lines are making plans to return; meanwhile, an AP writer looks back at a week spent quarantined during China’s swine flu crackdown.
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Morning Links: John Lennon’s New York City, Kansas City Barbecue and More
by Michael Yessis | 05.18.09 | 9:11 AM ET
- They wanted a story “about a time you double-booked in a particularly awkward way.” This guy’s trip to Bally’s Las Vegas sure fits the bill.
- The lives of regional airline pilots aren’t so glamorous. Unless you think traveling with sandwiches in a cooler is glamorous.
- Anthony DeCurtis remembers John Lennon’s New York City of the 70s.
- James Wolcott remembers New York City in the 70s, too. He writes: “One key difference between the 70s and today is that in the 70s the tourists looked scared.”
- Are travelers more unsafe at hotels now due to the economic climate?
- The crappy economy is hitting Kansas City where it hurts—in its barbecue joints.
- Greece has asked visitors to its archaeological sites to refrain from wearing stiletto heels.
- Vanity Fair says the movie version of “On the Road” is languishing in circle two of development hell.
- Tanya Gold field-tests a corporate training exercise that involves a plane-crash simulation.
- On “60 Minutes,” Andy Rooney continued his ridiculous campaign to encourage people not to go anywhere.
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Morning Links: Thanksmas, Stonehenge, Hollywood’s own Wax Museum and More
by Eva Holland | 05.15.09 | 8:39 AM ET
- Today in random airport cruelty: an EasyJet agent told a 6-year-old child in Glasgow that her teddy bear would have to be checked as excess baggage, and make the trip, as the girl’s mother put it, “in the big, dark hold.”
- Brave New Traveler asks: Why do bad things happen to good travelers?
- National Geographic has put together this fun map of Native American place names—and their English meanings—across the United States. (Via Intelligent Travel)
- There’s been a breakthrough in the ongoing struggle over plans for a new visitor center at Stonehenge. The Guardian has reaction.
- Virgin’s Sir Richard Branson plans on putting a stop to the proposed British Airways/American Airlines merger—and Jaunted is ready to fight by his side.
- Biographer Claire Tomalin tells Intelligent Life about the seven wonders of her world.
- Good news for lovers of foodie travel writing: New York Times restaurant reviewer Frank Bruni is shifting gears, becoming a writer-at-large for the Times magazine, “where he will have license to follow his appetites ... wherever they lead him.” (Via @davidfarley)
- The holiday season is months away, but I’m sure some travelers are already dreading it—luckily, the Daily Deal blog has a solution: Thanksmas.
- At long last, Madame Tussauds is coming to Hollywood. I can’t think of a better home for celebrity wax—is anyone else amazed that it took this long?
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Morning Links: Prince Harry in NYC, a Swimming Kangaroo and More
by Eva Holland | 05.14.09 | 8:15 AM ET
- Get ready, teen girls of the five boroughs: Britain’s Prince Harry will be making a formal visit to New York City at the end of May. Harry plans on visiting Ground Zero and participating in a polo match on Governors Island.
- NPR talked to Doug Gollan, editor in chief of Elite Traveler, about the “PR problem” wealthy travelers face, and why it’s important that they keep spending; here’s the transcript.
- And speaking of PR problems: Hospitality and tourism industry leaders were in Washington this week, asking Congress to lay off the harsh criticism of recession-era business travel.
- Australian travel headline of the day: Man saves kangaroo from shark infested waters. (And yes, there’s video.)
- Hard-traveling “Survivor” host Jeff Probst spills to USA Today about his favorite spots around the globe, and why he has nothing against penguins.
- Budget Travel picks the most beautiful ferry rides in the United States—check out the slideshow.
- A new air quality report shows traces of cocaine, amphetamines, opiates, cannabinoids and lysergic acid in the air in both Barcelona and Madrid; the article notes that both studies “were carried out close to universities.”
- Remember “Supertrain,” the short-lived 1979 TV series about a nuclear-powered express train? Jason Kottke does—and he points the way to some online clips.
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Morning Links: Travel Phobias, a Walt Disney Museum and More
by Eva Holland | 05.13.09 | 7:29 AM ET
- Myrtle Beach’s short-lived Hard Rock Park will reopen as the more “family-friendly” Freestyle Music Park, says USA Today. Sounds like Led Zeppelin is out, and the Monkees are in.
- Christopher Elliott names the top five travel phobias, and offers some advice for handling them.
- Check out this cool short video, mapping all Tweets that began with “Just landed in ...” or “Just arrived in ...” over a four-hour span.
- Long live the railway cafe! The Guardian picks 10 of Britain’s best.
- Jaunted looks forward to a new Walt Disney museum, one that “isn’t supposed to be a whitewash or a vanity project.”
- Pixar’s “Up” debuts tonight in 3D at the Cannes Film Festival. The Times Online goes inside Pixar headquarters to learn more.
- Several U.S. airlines have in-flight wi-fi programs in the works; the Boston Globe rounds up the latest news.
- The cockpit transcripts for the plane that crashed in Buffalo this past winter have been released.
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Morning Links: Boutique Hostels, an Airport’s ‘Wildlife Management Canine’ and More
by Eva Holland | 05.12.09 | 8:44 AM ET
- As the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall approaches, Berliners are having some regrets about how thoroughly it was wiped off the cityscape.
- Manhattan’s travel-themed Idlewild Books is celebrating its first birthday this Friday from 7pm to 9pm. Friends and supporters are welcome to stop by.
- Budget Travel offers up 7 ways to annoy a flight attendant. (Confession: I’m guilty on #6, every time.)
- Amid fears over bird strikes, the airport in Bend, Oregon has hired a border collie named Filly to serve as a “wildlife management canine.”
- But can she herd baggage carts, too? A Japan Airlines flight was disrupted yesterday when one of the plane’s engines sucked up and “ingested” a metal baggage container during push-back. No one was hurt.
- Like your hostels with a bit of style and a few perks? The Guardian has just launched an interactive map of boutique hostels worldwide.
- Eurocheapo offers five handy tips for cheap eating in Rome.
- A light at the end of the Airworld tunnel? The FAA is at work on a new navigation system that should cut down on weather delays and reduce flight times.
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Morning Links: Airport Bestsellers, Where America went for Mother’s Day and More
by Eva Holland | 05.11.09 | 8:34 AM ET
- The novel that launched “Slumdog Millionaire” has been named the Best Travel Read in the inaugural Heathrow Travel Product Awards. (Via the Book Bench)
- Stanley Johnson asks: Has Britain’s storied Royal Geographical Society lost its sense of adventure?
- Gawker finds out where America went out for dinner on Mother’s Day. The Olive Garden leads the pack.
- The Telegraph rounds up 12 desperate airline publicity stunts from the past few years.
- Good news: American Airlines is now allowing one-way reward flights, using half the miles of a return trip. (I can’t be the only one who’s been sitting on half a flight’s worth of miles for ages, right?)
- Find out which tourism destinations are benefiting from Mexico’s swine flu pain.
- Slate’s Ron Rosenbaum looks at airport bookstore bestsellers, “the literary canaries in the dark coal mines of our paranoia.”
- From museums to sports teams to the Ringling Brothers, NewYorkology offers a list of key New York City Twitter accounts.
- Last week, Andrew Sullivan quoted Emerson on travel and narrow-mindedness; this week, one of his readers quotes John Stuart Mill in defense of travel.
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Morning Links: Volcano Boarding, Reasons to Love North Dakota and More
by Eva Holland | 05.08.09 | 8:10 AM ET
- In the New Yorker, Amy Ozols jumps into the young-children-and-flying debate. Seems she’s not a fan of the “whimpering” and the “dripping facial parts.”
- The latest in adrenaline-fueled travel? Introducing volcano boarding.
- Beth Greenfield tells the sad truth about Amtrak’s (and anyone else’s) designated quiet car: it’s not really that quiet.
- World Hum contributor Robert Reid keeps the fun lists coming. The latest: Top 41 Reasons Why I’m Asking North Dakota to the Prom.
- Check out this groundbreaking video of a monster wave in super slow motion.
- We all know Sir Richard Branson loves to play dress-up, but after his latest stunt Britain’s rail workers’ union isn’t laughing. (Via BootsnAll Today)
- Sasha Frere-Jones to Britain: Our rockers have better smack talk than yours.
- Today in weird airport news: A man was stopped at US customs in Los Angeles with 13 birds stuffed in his pant legs.
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Morning Links: Breakfast Around the World, Mind-Narrowing Travel and More
by Eva Holland | 05.07.09 | 9:16 AM ET
- A small fleet of bubblegum pink, women-only taxis is now cruising the streets of Lebanon.
- Over at Intelligent Travel, World Hum contributor Jerry Haines takes a fun look at breakfast preferences around the world.
- Rome’s famous “talking statues,” where citizens have been posting satirical complaints for more than five centuries, are getting a $93,000 makeover. The catch? The statues will be fenced off and note-free post-restoration.
- Meet the winner of Queensland Tourism’s “Best Job in the World” competition.
- Andrew Sullivan quotes Chesterton and Emerson on “how travel narrows the mind.”
- Slate’s latest Well-Traveled series follows an expat mother as she heads to Thailand to give birth.
- In Forbes Traveler, World Hum contributor Lola Akinmade takes a look at the world’s spiciest foods.
- A new book suggests that Jack the Ripper was an invention of tabloid journalists looking to sell papers. No word yet on whether London’s walking tour operators were in on the scheme, too. (Via the Book Bench)
- Oh, and that TripAdvisor survey we mentioned a few days back? Arthur Frommer is unimpressed: “You will forgive me if I refuse to follow the travel advice of people who regard the ultra-costly Prague “as the best bargain destination,” the fastidious British as the “worst-dressed,” and Paris as “overrated.” Aaaargh!”
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Morning Links: Mile-High Marriages, the Loneliest Pig in the World and More
by Eva Holland | 05.06.09 | 8:06 AM ET
- Here’s a possible bright spot in all-too-grim Airworld: British budget airline Easyjet is hoping to offer in-flight weddings, with pilots as officiants. It’s about time somebody brought the romance back to air travel.
- Slate’s Tim Wu contemplates the strange appeal of polar travel.
- Disneyland employees in charge of checking the mid-ride souvenir photos for flashers have been reassigned. Says Disney: “actual inappropriate behaviors by guests are rare.”
- World Hum contributor Pam Mandel pops up in the latest issue of Perceptive Travel, with a story about British Columbia’s First Nations.
- Afghanistan’s only known pig has been quarantined over swine flu fears; the story’s worth reading in full for the bizarre details about the Kabul Zoo alone.
- National Geographic is still seeking innovative nominees for its Geotourism Challenge—the deadline to enter is May 20.
- Scotland’s John O’Groats, the most northern point on the British mainland, may finally be getting a long-overdue makeover.
- Matador Abroad offers a lesson on How to Eat a New Language.
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Morning Links: Happy Cinco de Mayo, Lockdown in Hong Kong and More
by Eva Holland | 05.05.09 | 7:45 AM ET
- Happy Cinco de Mayo—or as most Americans know it, margarita and guacamole day. Speaking of which, the new First Lady just proclaimed Mexican food her “favorite food in the whole wide world.”
- Jaunted has the details on a handful of Cinco de Mayo celebrations that are going ahead as planned, flu or no flu.
- World Hum contributor Robert Reid shares his Top 57 Things in Bulgaria. (Ketchup on pizza? I’m there!)
- Britain’s BMI hopes to re-launch its London-Baghdad route, on hiatus for nearly two decades, within the year.
- Free bike borrowing is coming to Lower Manhattan beginning next week.
- The South Florida Sun-Sentinel looks at Havana’s at-risk architecture.
- “CSI:NY” star Melina Kanakaredes sings the praises of St. Louis and the Peloponnese.
- A new study has found that the French spend more time sleeping and eating each day, on average, than any other nationality. Surprised?
- World Hum contributor Daisann McLane has this dispatch from Hong Kong’s Metropark Hotel, where a swine flu lockdown is in effect.
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Morning Links: R.I.P. Escapes Section, the ‘Dirtiest City in Europe’ and More
by World Hum | 05.04.09 | 8:10 AM ET
- In Washington D.C. tonight, World Hum columnist Eric Weiner will speak with World Hum contributor Pico Iyer about Iyer’s book, “The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama.” Tickets are $25 and an RSVP is required.
- A pilot walked away unhurt after his Cessna crash-landed onto “a cushioning group of portable lavatories.”
- For the second year in a row, London has been voted the dirtiest city in Europe in a TripAdvisor poll. The British capital also took the prizes for worst cuisine and worst-dressed locals. Ouch.
- This weekend saw the New York Times go Escapes section-free. (Via @LunaticAtLarge)
- Outside contributing editor Ian Frazier has some advice for all the young adventurers out there: old guys rule.
- Breaking news from the Onion: the unheralded sherpa who led Neil Armstrong to the moon has died at age 71.
- CNN rounds up five roadside “world’s largest” attractions; “Travelers enjoy the noncorporate, somewhat ragged nature of these eclectic attractions,” says an interviewee.
- Today in swine flu news: roughly 70 Mexican passport-holders have been detained and quarantined in China, regardless of their possible exposure to the virus; the Mexican government is sending a plane to retrieve its citizens.
- The Big Picture tackles human landscapes from above.
- Feeling overlooked on the world stage, South Korea is launching a national branding campaign. The Los Angeles Times has an idea for a slogan: “South Korea: Way better than you think it is.”
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Morning Links: Railway Hotels, the National Magazine Awards and More
by Eva Holland | 05.01.09 | 9:06 AM ET
Morning Links: Electric Cars, Award-Winning Toilets and More
by Eva Holland | 04.30.09 | 8:33 AM ET
- Ready for an electric-powered road trip? Wired takes the much-hyped Chevy Volt for a test drive.
- The ground-floor men’s bathroom at Nashville’s Hermitage Hotel has been named the best restroom in America.
- The L.A. Times looks back at classic Hollywood’s love affair with North Africa.
- Mercer’s annual Best Places to Live rankings are out; the winning cities are “clean, safe, and a little bit dull,” says the Independent.
- Check out this compelling story from a California journalist who fell in love with an Iraqi reporter while on assignment in Baghdad—and then ran into a lot of red tape.
- Who knew? According to a Cornell research team, the Apple Store is New York City’s fifth-most photographed spot.
- Malaysia’s McCurry restaurant has survived a legal challenge from McDonald’s. The ownership claimed the name stood for “Malaysian Chicken Curry.”
- The Washington Post looks at the impact of swine flu on Mexico’s tourism industry, and in more flu news, an L.A. Times blogger wonders whether Baja California is safer than Los Angeles.
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Morning Links: Swine Flu and Travel, Antarctic Ice and More
by Eva Holland | 04.29.09 | 9:00 AM ET
- An ice cap “bigger than Singapore or Bahrain and almost the size of New York City” has broken off the Wilkins Ice Shelf in Antarctica.
- In Britain, a woman who changed her name to Pudsey Bear for a charity drive has been denied a new passport.
- The Economist gets on the two-wheeled transit bandwagon.
- Five major cruise lines have suspended all visits to Mexican ports over swine flu fears, while in Europe, France plans to ask the EU to suspend all flights to the country, as well.
- The always-classy CEO of Ryanair weighs in on swine flu, opining that it “is a tragedy only for people living ... in slums in Asia or Mexico.” (Via Gadling)
- This Just In offers a quick guide to the Eiffel Tower’s 120th birthday celebrations.
- Planning to catch the
GratefulDead on their reunion tour? Slate has a handy guide explaining what your favorite Dead song says about you. - And the Travel Headline of the Day goes to ... Travel writers send American tourists to London’s rundown Deptford. Says one local politician: “I hope they like hoodies, muggers and junkies—there are enough of them here.”
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Morning Links: How Travel Publishing is Like Climbing Kilimanjaro, a Hasty Cleveland Video and More
by Michael Yessis | 04.28.09 | 10:16 AM ET
- I like Cleveland. I might like the Hastily Made Cleveland Tourism Video better, though.
- “Navigating the world of travel publishing these days is a lot like climbing Kilimanjaro,” writes Don George in the new Recce.
- The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s list of endangered historic sites is out.
- Harriet Baskas investigates the possibility of solar powered airports.
- Swine flu update: A CDC travel warning urges against nonessential travel to Mexico, and USA Today looks at how the flu might affect the travel industry. Here’s more on the outbreak and travel.
- Good magazine lists five of America’s most innovative public-transit projects.
- Should tour guides in Philadelphia have to take a two-hour history test? Or should they be able to tell tourists that George Washington and Abraham Lincoln ate lunch together? Marketplace explains.
- Finally, who among us couldn’t use a travel tip from Martin Brodeur?
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Morning Links: Swine Flu and Travel, Viewing North Korea and More
by Michael Yessis | 04.27.09 | 9:13 AM ET
- In response to the swine flu outbreak, several airlines are waiving change fees for Mexico travelers.
- Airline and tourism stocks have been slammed by the news of the swine flu.
- As of 9:18 a.m. ET, the CDC “has NOT recommended that people avoid travel to Mexico at this time” because of the outbreak. However, the EU’s health commissioner “urged Europeans on Monday to postpone nonessential travel to the United States or Mexico.”
- Here’s how an Italian cruise ship fended off a pirate attack.
- Daisann McLane on the financial “tsunami”: “[W]hen the hardest waves hit, my response has always been the same: hit back, and hit the road.”
- World Hum contributor David Farley surfaces in Dublin’s Smithfield neighborhood.
- The Economist says there’s an “element of silliness” to this story about female business travelers.
- The Big Picture peers into North Korea.
- The Telegraph has a slideshow of the world’s weirdest festivals.
- A hammer-and-sickle T-shirt almost derailed efforts to have The Flaming Lips song “Do You Realize” named Oklahoma’s official rock song.
- Gail Collins has “been thinking a lot about state slogans this week.” They’re pretty funny thoughts.
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Morning Links: The Middle East Rail Boom, Detroit’s Music Bust and More
by Michael Yessis | 04.24.09 | 8:11 AM ET
- “Railway mania” hits the Middle East.
- Andorrans sure do live a long time.
- Laura M. Holson explores Walker Evans’ Alabama.
- The Big Picture puts its spotlight on Earth Day.
- A Canadian tourist has stirred up controversy in New Zealand over a candy called Eskimos.
- The FAA will release data on bird strikes.
- Non Sequitur weighs in on an idea for a new bird avoidance system.
- Bungled ad alert: That’s a beach in England standing in for the Canadian province of Alberta.
- NPR asks, “Why can’t Detroit cash in on its music scene?”
- Finally, Pakistan who? Robert Reid shares his top 10 travel knock-knock jokes.
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